Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I was hoping we'd see Smith come out aggressive. Attacking hitters. Looking to establish himself right off the bat. Instead, he set a bad tone early by getting up 0-2 on Rickie Weeks, only to tiptoe around him with the next four. After retiring Carlos Gomez and Ryan Braun, he nibbled again and walked Prince Fielder. That allowed one bad mistake to Casey McGehee to cost him three runs.

When anybody mentions limiting the traffic, that's exactly what they mean. Two free runs just along for the ride.

He also used up 34 bullets in that first inning. That's always a guarantee for a short night.
Overall Smith's stuff is fine. He even settled in for a stretch and retired seven in a row, it's just continuing to pound that strikeout. Finish off hitters when you're ahead. Trust your stuff even against a tough left-handed bat. Let the defense have a little fun out there, too. They'll cover your back.

I expect his next start to go better as long as Apodoca drills all that into his head.

Ian

Would be silly for me to not mention how well Ian Stewart is swinging the bat. He's not pull heavy, he's just driving baseballs hard in the direction of which they are meant to be driven. Amazingly, that's the most difficult thing for Major League hitters to learn. Nice and easy, go with the pitch, good things will follow.

He's locked into that thought process.

Official Scorer

Losing Player: Matt Belisle (0-1)

Greg Smith earned his real life loss in this one, but I'm going Belisle. You'll notice that I pick out the little things in a game that make a big difference. One of those is holding an opponent down in the late innings to give yourself a chance. After failing to do just that yesterday, Belisle followed up with an even worse effort tonight. The added sting tonight was that Rockies did rally for the run that would have tied the game.